Our annual retreat last week at Five Oaks Centre in Ontario was a four-day celebration of the RCC community. We discussed resilience, racial healing, land stewardship, learning through gaming and play, operations and programming, bringing core values to life, and more. Such a joy to be together!

We are delighted to begin connecting retreat centers and allied organizations across the RCC network with Bonner programs, students and alumni around the United States who are passionate about community building, diversity, social justice, spiritual exploration, and wellness.

On this Community Call, a panel of speakers shared from their experiences on the difficulties of living where you work, establishing personal space, and what they’re learning along the way.

You may have seen the news in recent weeks that the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland is going through a major transition, and that Santa Sabina Center in northern California is closing and placing their property on the market. Here at RCC, we grieve to see the loss of these peers.

RCC and Peace Through Action USA invite retreat centers to apply to be prospective AmeriCorps member service sites in Peace Through Action’s upcoming application for AmeriCorps funding.

On this Community Call in early August, the RCC community gathered to swap recommendations for tools that make retreat center operations more efficient and effective.

The Midwest Centers Affinity Group serves as a big-hearted pick-me-up for folks who often feel isolated in their work, and an invitation to celebrate being surrounded by people who understand and share a similar vision and set of challenges.

The RCC Stewardship Circle brings together diverse perspectives to steward the strategy and direction-setting for the Retreat Center Collaboration, and ensures that our work remains aligned with our core values. In July 2023, RCC welcomed Francisco Burgos, executive director at Pendle Hill, to join this team.

Completed in July 2023, our Sustainability Toolkit offers an overview of the recent Cal Poly sustainability study and its findings, including highlights from the students’ literature review and data analysis. The toolkit suggests key areas for improvement, provides a tool and manual, plus links to related data.

The Racial Healing Initiative team is committed to co-creating a society filled with equity, belonging, wholeness, and collective wisdom and beauty. In this article, the team shares more about the RHI approach, what they’re learning, and how your center can participate.

Psychedelic-assisted therapy, and the transformative inner journeys that participants embark upon, have the potential to become deeply connected to the work of retreat centers in the future. In this article, RCC Program Director Ben Scott-Brandt shares some of his observations, and invites continuing conversations within and across the RCC network as retreat centers respond to this quickly-changing field.

The RCC Community Call on June 27th featured a discussion with Editorial Director John Ferro and Chief Digital Content Officer Racquel “Rockie” Joseph of the Omega Institute, where we explored ideas, best practices, and the benefits of crafting your center's online presence.

Special guest Michelle Cassandra Johnson led an RCC racial healing workshop where participants found out how collective dreaming disrupts systems of oppression and acts as a catalyst for our shared healing and liberation.

In this interview with the producer of the new documentary film, SABBATH, RCC program director Ben Scott-Brandt explores how the concept of sabbath connects with the work of retreat centers.

In partnership with a team of industrial engineering students at Cal Poly University, the Retreat Center Collaboration is studying models for financial and programmatic sustainability at retreat centers. Find out what the team has learned from their eight-month study.

On this world-cafe-style Community Call, retreat center leaders were invited to bring a topic to discuss or select from a “menu” of discussion topics.

On this Community Call, we discussed ways retreat centers can inspire volunteers and program alumni to give back and deepen their participation in the community.

On this Community Call, we explored RCC's role as a mutual partner with retreat centers and how establishing formal partnerships might pave a clearer path for collaborative fundraising efforts.

Registration is now open for the RCC Annual Retreat, taking place this October 22 - 25, at Five Oaks Centre in Ontario!

On a recent Community Call, new RHI Program Director Brenda Salgado demonstrated through storytelling how healing our human relationships also means healing our relationship with the land.